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Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapists

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Physical Therapist Aides and Occupational Therapists on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Physical Therapist Aides Occupational Therapists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$34,520
$98,340
Employment · BLS OEWS
44,010
152,280
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
7th pct
32nd pct

At a glance

Dimension Physical Therapist Aides Occupational Therapists
Median pay $34,520 $98,340
Employment 44,010 152,280
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.8%) Growing fast (+13.8%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 6,600 10,200
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 7th pct Low · 32nd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 18th pct · 15% of tasks 32nd pct · 20% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Automation-leaning (50.0%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Active Listening, Oral Comprehension, Therapy and Counseling, Monitoring, Service Orientation, Problem Sensitivity, Speech Recognition, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Oral Expression, Near Vision, Writing, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Active Learning, Instructing, Time Management, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Selective Attention, Speech Clarity, Psychology, Complex Problem Solving, Deductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Judgment and Decision Making.

Specific to Physical Therapist Aides

  • Computers and Electronics
  • Trunk Strength
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Persuasion
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Static Strength

Specific to Occupational Therapists

  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Learning Strategies
  • Education and Training
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Originality
  • Biology
  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Operations Analysis

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Medical software , Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Word processing software .

Specific to Physical Therapist Aides

Specific to Occupational Therapists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Physical Therapist Aides or Occupational Therapists — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapists." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapists

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapists

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapists,
  title  = {Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapists},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapists}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.